"We need to get the door above us open, "Rose said shifting her weight.

The Doctor let go with one hand and instantly Rose could feel herself wobbling. He produced his Sonic-screwdriver and used it on the ceiling but nothing happened.

"Deadlock, I can't open it!" he said exasperated.

"Great so we're trapped on the edge of a pit with no escape?" Rose swallowed.

"Pretty much sums it up."

They stood in tense silence.

"Won't someone come for us?" she said trying to keep hope.

"If they do we'll be well and truly dead at the bottom of this pit by the time they do."

The floor clicked in place mechanically and Rose gripped his arms harder.

"We'll get out of here, don't give up." Rose said in a slightly childish whine.

The Doctor just stared into the pit thinking of the inevitable. She pinched him slightly to get his attention.

"Say something, I hate this silence."

His eyes continued to stare into the pit.

"Doctor if we d…"

"Don't!" he said firmly.

"But if we do…"

"You won't. I promised your Mother nothing would happen to you," He said this eyes flaring, "now be quiet, I'm thinking!"

Rose decided not to argue her point any further. Instead she looked round the area for another exit. Her eyes flickered to a small glass dot on one of the walls. It seemed to be flashing yellow.

"Is that a camera?" Rose asked.

The Doctor looked up at it,"yep by the looks of it, it is."

His eyebrows squeezed together as he thought, "that must mean there's someone watching us which means maybe they won't kill us because let's face it, cleaning up dead bodies for no reason is a pain in the neck. Rose, have hope!"

"I wasn't the one who lost hope," she said silently in her breath.

They clutched each other, the Doctor elated and Rose weary. With a sudden clang the door above began to open to reveal three cloaked figures hunched over them.

"Get the girl, I'll take the man." The middle one croaked.

The Doctor and Rose were lifted out of the door into a corridor and helped to their feet. The corridor followed the same colour scheme, with the walls the same dirty brown colour and the same foul odour. The Doctor and Rose stood a couple of metres from the end of the corridor while the others blocked the remainder of it.

The Doctor brushed dust off of his suit and put on his best grin, "thank you, I thought we were going to die down there. Now I'm the…"

"Silence!" the middle one croaked, "now this is most fascinating, I thought the Timelords were dead, burned in the Time War with the rest of the universe but I was wrong, you live. Oh and he travels with a human, so little and cute and pathetic."

"I'm not pathetic!" Rose contorted grumpily.

"Even so I could snap you like a twig but why would a Timelord travel with something so vulnerable? Because he's lonely, has no home and then he meets this little human, so young and inexperienced and he can't help it, she has a family, a home, everything he lost and she wants him so he thinks it's fair. He tells himself that they're just friends but he knows that's a lie but he's too much of a coward to see the truth and accept it." It groaned with one breath.

Rose was too busy fuming about being called pathetic and inexperienced to notice what the figure was saying but the Doctor listened to every word; his eyes stared grimly at the hooded figures.

"Enough speaking, split them," It chuckled and the two others raised gloved hands holding two strange, retro looking guns, "and remember to turn down the setting for the human, we don't want her getting hurt."

Rose was ready to charge them when the Doctor jumped in front of her. They fired with a small click and the Doctor fell to Rose's feet with a short cry.

She looked at him shocked, her hand felt his chest and she sighed as she felt the four beats of his hearts. They waited for her calmly. Then she stood up and started backing away, her eyes flicking around her for a way to escape but she was against a wall, there was no escape. She was trapped.

"Little human are you scared? Lost your Doctor I hear, that's not good." It chuckled sarcastically.

Rose swallowed down her anger and looked at them smiling, "shoot me then, at least I'll sleep tight knowing I don't go hiding behind a cloak like you because you're a coward, a coward who puts down others to hide your own disgraces and a coward who can't even look a human in the eye. Goodnight."

And she heard the guns click and welcomed the ripping pain and the deep sleep with a satisfied smile.